Archive for Tom Carroll

Intuition. Though familiar – even common to all; intuition is not very well understood – yet! With help from Author, Catherine Carrigan, let’s explore this powerful, sensory ability.

Who of us has not said, “Oh, if I had only listened to my intuition!” Failing to follow advice freely given, we fall into a ditch on one side or miss an opportunity on the other. And there are those happy times when we do just as we “knew” we should – we follow the advice of the, “Still Small Voice” and see questions answered and situations turn out for the best.

Intuition. Few argue about its existence, though debate rages as to its authority, authenticity and origin. But what is it? Could it be true that extra-ordinary guidance is available to soccer moms and dads – to work-a-day people with no particular interest in psychic phenomenon? Part of the answer to these questions – the part this article will focus on is that intuition is not “extra ordinary.” Can this statement be supported? Yes, just as easily as I made it. Proof comes from the fact that everyone has had an intuitive moment – an unmistakable, intuitive experience. Something that everyone has experienced simply cannot be said be, extra-ordinary. Intuition, however difficult it might be to explain, is common. Its commonality is the proof needed to call it ordinary, as compared to things extra-ordinary! Intuition… wonderfully and quite simply, ordinary!

(August 5, 2014) – I posted a video on Facebook yesterday – As a defense of Israel, it was satisfying in its clarity – explaining the current situation in a way that made it impossible to misunderstand Israels actions this past two weeks – these most current hostilities as they relate to recent history and serve as predictors of the future. However complicated the ultimate solution may be – however long that region of the world may have to wait for a durable peace – Israel holds the moral high ground and with it, justification for whatever may need to be done to preserve sovereignty and protect it’s citizens. Good guys and bad guys. Black and white. At a time when so little is clear, I found satisfaction in this video’s and my own conclusion that Israel was fighting the good fight. However many Palestinians might die that night, the Israeli army are the good guys. They were my team! I slept well. Read More→

I beg your pardon, if I’ve I dropped my fork. Smile with me please, as my feet stumble and I trip over a word and miss when reaching for a thought.

What follows is a story you may have heard before. It leaves the reader with a mixture of feelings, depending upon your point of view – your own thoughts and actions. The original story is attributed to a great man, Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy. So, know that I intend no disrespect. But I have added some thoughts that turn the story up-side down at the end. Tolstoy’s version goes like this: Read More→

Well, it’s Valentine’s Day. Couples, hopeful suitors, friends and family members are professing and accepting expressions of love. In each case love means something different.

There is so much packed into the word, the practice and the concept of love that we’ll never begin to see anything close to its meaning if we don’t take it out beyond our everyday, human sized understanding. In a previous article posted here and titled “Loves Got a Hold on You!, Love was seen to be, not just universal. Possibly much more startling, the idea was introduced that it is a Universe pervading, fifth force like gravity, responsible for self organization of the material and living worlds. So let’s look from a place approximating that altitude again.

Love most often shows up in one of two ways. Comparing them will help us see both what is confusing as well as the best of love as our heart and understanding matures. Read More→

When spiritual and religious authors write that “God is love,” they often use the Greek word, Agape. Agape is safe. It suggests unconditional love, either from God or a really spectacular friend! Toss in a couple more Greek words for love, philia and storge, and we’re still safe. A friend for a friend and a mother’s love for a child. All three of these words are under control – our control. Just the way we like it. Read More→

A spiritual partnership is a partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth. This agreement between two people places the growth of their souls above the convenience of a “comfortable,” conventional relationship.

Speaking of, and referring to material contained in his latest book, author, Gary Zukov tells readers that a new and surprising world is emerging that requires each of us to explore the sources of our love and cultivate them while observing the inner sources of all that prevents us from loving and feeling loved. The root of these blocks are our fears. However, for those who are ready, a conscious relationship between spiritual partners can place us on the fast track to healing. Our evolution has taken a new path, and our relationships are changing in unexpected and dramatic ways. Fear has no place here – too bad it’s still so scary! Help may come from this new view of relationship – seeing them as constructive partnerships with a larger purpose than romance and even equal to the challenge of raising a family. Read More→

Last week I wrote the piece titled: “Depression. Helpful? Who’d have Thought!” The reactions it generated were instructive. First, depression is not an uplifting topic – even though I wrote of having seen that it is merely the dark side of an important truth. Then I said that all of temporal existence is empty – which, if not understood sounds really depressing!

What we want is freedom. What we often get is the feeling that things are not going our way – that freedom is farther from our grasp now, at this point in life, than when we started out feeling young and full of possibility! Good news awaits! Read More→

This fall I experienced something new. With winters approach, I felt depressed. More and more often, by late afternoon dark feelings and unspecific notions of dread colored my thoughts. As time went on, these feelings intensified. I finally realized that, as others had described and I had never before felt, I was depressed! I was seriously unhappy about everything inside and out. Some might say that there were plenty of reasons to feel this way. It had been a stressful year for all of us with difficult news coming daily regarding our national finances, election uncertainties, and everything from the Occupy movement to the so-called Arab spring where bullets and bombs, not spring rain fell from the sky! Now, the warmth of summer had given way to winter cold. Threatening news was being reported from every quarter. And I turned fifty nine. Read More→

Abundance. The word means more than enough. Not necessarily piles and piles of money and supplies but all that you really need, and at least a little more. Prosperity seems to mean something similar, but with a slight difference. This word suggests the continuing condition of abundance. So once you possess abundance, you want to couple it with prosperity – those conditions that sustain abundance. Let’s call them A&P like the supermarket chain located in some parts of the country – an appropriate metaphor and a little quicker to refer to as I write.

Ideas of abundance change from person to person and from time to time. A superficial understanding of A&P will most often bring to mind money. Though not a bad place to start, it does not adequately cover the concept. A person stranded far from support systems may need food and water that no amount of money could purchase because there are no stores or water to drink. A person experiencing failing health may have the care of the best doctors, but as conditions deteriorate, the already highly paid doctor’s skill does not increase with another infusion of cash. And, any one of us – each one of us needs a true friend – something that money cannot buy. Read More→

Christmas is coming. Already here, in a sense. Everyone that can is taking Monday off. Parties are in full swing and gifts are receiving last minute attention – wrapping, bows and ribbons. I have just one question.

“Mary… Did you know? Yes, it’s that line… from that song. But, did you? Did anyone have any idea what would flow from a questioned birth, a tumultuous life and the death of one young man? Read More→

News in from friends in England: Prime Meridian, GMT +0:00 its 10:00 PM and the world still exists… so they think. They just happen to live close to Stonehenge. This is another fortunate circumstance and solid indicator. If the world had ended – surely it would have ended at Stonehenge first… Right? Read More→

Are you ready? No, I don’t mean Christmas. Are you ready for life? Again, no – not me! I never have been. I never knew what to expect. Short of preparing for the worst, how can you be ready for the unknown and the unexpected? And having prepared for the worst – how can we enjoy all the good that comes our way? “Ya, that was pretty good but you never know what terrible thing might be coming next!”

And just look at the vegetative and animal world – how they protect themselves. Hard as a nut, we say. Thick hides and claws, venom and jaws! Old Lady Natures pack’en and protected! Read More→

Then there’s Malidome Patrice Some’, a West African man, kidnapped by French missionaries as a child and later returned to his family where he is re-initiated into tribal society. In his book, Malidome tells the story of being catapulted into another world – like the other side of Alice’s looking glass. One moment he’s dancing with the other men on hard ground. Next, it’s his turn to jump through a hole between two animal skins held by the village Shaman and wham! He’s falling through space. It’s completely dark except for a lattice work of light beams. Without being told anything, Malidome knows that he must grab and hold onto a strand of light or continue falling – forever lost to the “real world”. Ding, dang! Major, “bing bang!” Jumping through an inter-dimensional portal? Latticework’s of light where just a moment ago his pals were standing? Read More→

A recent trip to Israel generated the following account of a day in the Holy Land – not so unlike any other land. Not unlike most other days filled with random acts of chaos.

… Just reaching out from warm, sunny Israel with all its blooming flowers. I drove down to the Dead Sea yesterday afternoon. Down in that lowest spot on earth I thought to myself… “The Dead Sea might really be dead and you’d never know for sure because it’s preserved by all that salt. ” I never thought of it quite like that before! Read More→

The postman left a box yesterday but I was napping on the couch and didn’t hear the screen door open or close. So it was not until this morning when I gathered the nerve to brave the morning chill and ran to the car for a book that I had left, that I noticed the delivery. Passing it on the way out the door… mentally, I ran through the possibilities. I was not expecting anything ‑ nothing ordered. Nothing left in Sandpoint that had not been mailed down. Then it came to me. It was the week after Thanksgiving ‑ I had a fruitcake on my porch! Snatching it up on my pass back through the door I used a knife to slice away tape, freeing the box flaps and foam packing. And there it was, protected and perfect with a card on top. Read More→

Wales is a country – an independent jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. The Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea wash its Western border, with England as it’s neighbor to the East. No. 4 Cefn, Gethynog, Talybont on Usk, Brecon, Powys, Wales. This was the address of friends I had come to visit. Having driven from London that morning and crossed the wide channel at Bristol, I followed signs for the town of Brecon. With each mile I was weaving my way deeper into the heart of an ancient land. “Ancient,” is a flexible word. Some places were the location of significant historical events – ancient history. Wales has a history so ancient that it has outstripped our ability to remember. The roads I drove and towns I passed through were rooted in this prehistory. In spite of mankind’s inability to preserve a record, there is a memory in the land that still speaks – still influences the land and Welshmen of today. Read More→

Okay… Let’s get begin to wrap this up. I’ve strung a few diligent readers along for nine weeks. So in a effort to pull this together, no more weird stories… just a scary one! And this – only because it will help bring all that has happened into focus.

It was late evening by the time my flight landed in Spokane. Karen was there with her Range Rover and after tossing my bags in back I got behind the wheel to drive us back to Sandpoint. Just like the opening lines of a bad mystery novel, it was a dark and rainy night. Drops of rain can break as they fall, creating a mist. That night a multitude of miniature rain drops obscured our headlights, scattering the light we needed to see our way forward. Read More→

The following is a letter I needed to write to friends after an unsettling conversation. It is timely – in that it refers to Tuesdays elections. I hope some find it helpful if they are faced with the sorts of difficulties it addresses – questions and discomfort that come up when we find ourselves disagreeing with friends. Those times when we feel required to choose between people and ideas – between friends and our political heroes.

First – let’s be sure that you know that from where I stand, our friendship is a real thing – much more than just a word. And I believe our friendship is safe even though I hold a different perspective on the broad subject, (there’s a tasteless pun for you), of women’s rights – women’s issues – and the political candidates – one of whom we will elect as our next president. At certain times and this week is one of them – at times like this it’s easy to find ourselves divided. Right now we are in need of clarity, for insight – we need to to know which way is best – which way will lead us to the light which at present we cannot see at the end of the tunnel. Strangely, our respect and desire for truth finds us feeling as though surrounded by anything but clarity and unsure who we should trust. So let me do what I can to help – I’ll shed a little light and offer a bit of clarity. Read More→

It was twelve years later. Twelve years after an angelic encounter at the Wall in Jerusalem the opening event in this story series. A lot happens in twelve years. Like anyone – by degrees, I was a different person – am a different person today. But without regard for the passing of time the memory of certain events remains current. Time passed but I continued to feel that there should and would be some kind of closure – an end note to make sense of those particular events and the rest of the weird stuff I’ve recounted here.

So it was not surprising that every year in the fall, at the time of the High Holiday Festivals, I thought of being there – back at The Wall. But this time with an appreciation of what might be accomplished beyond faith or doctrine – accomplished by the focused intent of a gathering of like minded men and women. But just wanting to be there was not the same as that feeling I’d had before when I knew that I really needed to go. Read More→